Growing up in Scotland: life at age 12

Enjoyment of school

With information collected during their first year at secondary school, GUS data allow some consideration of how much children enjoy their new school experience. Enjoyment of school was measured using several questions, some exploring school or learning in general and others asking about enjoyment of specific school subjects.

Just over half of children said they often or always looked forward to going to school (53%) whilst many more said they often or always enjoyed learning at school (68%). Girls were more likely than boys to say that they always enjoy learning at school (25% compared with 16%) and that they always look forward to going to school (19% compared with 13%).

Girls were more likely than boys to say that they:

When asked how pressured they felt by the schoolwork they had to do, 30% of children said they didn’t feel pressured at all, just over half (55%) felt a little pressured, 11% quite a lot and 4% a lot. There was no statistically significant difference between boys and girls.

Seven out of ten children felt a little or more pressured by schoolwork

Boys and girls reported some differences in how much they liked certain subjects. Girls were more likely than boys to say they liked English and modern languages a lot (43% and 30% compared with 34% and 20% respectively). In contrast, boys showed a greater preference than girls for science, with 49% of boys saying they liked science a lot compared with 42% of girls. The difference in the proportion of boys and girls who liked maths was not statistically significant.

Proportion of girls and boys who like each subject a lot